Salt lakes / salt production in Torrevija

[Julia6]

It may sound a daft question, but how is salt produced by the earth, and how is it that there is always a constant sourse of it, it seems in Torrevieja, and will it ever run out? Julia.

[Clanad]

Few such simple things have the historical signifcance of salt (sodium chloride if you're a chemist). Salt can be produced by evaporating salt laden water. Much of the naturally occurring salt is sea water that evaporated near the edges of oceans and inland seas that were salt laden for various reasons. The deep earth salt mines are remnants of such natural production. The salt deposits were covered over by eons of sediment. Salt is practically indestructible if maintained in a dry condition and most of the mines today are in extremely dry areas of the world. Here in the western U.S. and elsewhere, deep salt mines are used for storage of valuable government papers and even large corporations use the commercial facilities for such storage. Most of the mines are in geologically stable areas as well, which contributes to the value as storage locations...(more than you ever wanted to know about going to work in the salt mines!)

[woofgang]

I seem to recall that te air in salt mines is said to be very good for people with breathing problems

[woofgang]

yup, isn't it strange what the mind stores!!

http://www.breatheeasysaltpipe.co.uk/

[Grunty]

Now that you have seen the salt pans, you might be interested to see deep salt mines. There are salt mines in Cheshire and I think at least one is open to the public. A very interesting place to see the deep mine method is in Krakow, Poland. Just one of the attractions is a picture of The Last Supper which is carved into the salt. The carving is only about four inches deep, but the perspective is so good that you seem to be looking into the room. I can't remember the name of the mine, but the tourist office will know.